Norman Hotel @ Woollongabba, Brisbane

It's been a tiring few days recently with the in laws (dad, mom and brother) in town. Despite how big I think my one bedroom apartment is to the Wife and I, accommodating another three persons can be quite a task. However all that being said, I had fun knowing them better and funny to say this, the place now seems too quiet for comfort. 


Moons ago, we put our brains on overdrive to create a relaxing, entertaining and educating itinerary to cover Brisbane and the coasts. However, being a foodie and the Wife, a converted foodie; our trip was all based around on food; namely breakfast, lunch and dinner. 


On the day of their arrival, we decided for dinner, it would have to be a good pub meal; namely steak and chips. Without wanting to break the bank account, we ditched the Moo Moos and the Char Chars, we surveyed around and decided that we had to go for the most extreme, the worst vegetarian restaurant in Brisbane; Norman Hotel.


With a display of their freshest produce and cuts, you pick the cut, the size, the sauce and off you wait. A pity that the chips had to be a side order because their steak comes standard with a salad and a baked potato. 

To kick things off, we shared some pork ribs and oysters kilpatrick. The ribs were nothing too flashy, a tangy sauce and tender meat. The in laws preferred the oysters uncooked but loved the simple idea of putting some worcestershire sauce and bacon as a topping. 


We had an early start that day that involved being at the Coolangatta airport at 7.30am and it had to be tiredness because I ditched the ribeye on the bone and that crazy chunk of striploin for a humble rib eye (although it was still a large portion that I wanted). On any normal day, I would have definitely gone for the bigger cuts. Prices were around AUD30+ for a steak main.

Cooked according to how we want, I love the charring on the meat, the good size portions and the salad but wasn't too crazy over the sauce. However since it was an open kitchen, I did see that the chef who was cooking the steaks did take quite a few stabs at the steaks to see if it was done correctly. Thankfully, ours must have escaped his knife since it still came out quite juicy. 


Service is non existent as you pay at the counter and take your own food at the counter. For the price that the in laws paid (they won the battle of who foots the bill), we thought the Caxton Hotel might have that been little better since they had a waitress serving us and the ventilation was way better.


Else it was quite entertaining reading how the Norman Hotel took on the tag line of being the worst vegetarian restaurant as evident by all the cow they serve.     

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Verdict: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars. If you want steak, you get steak and this is one place that you can't get escape without ordering some cow.